What do I have to do to get my Private Pilot Certificate?

You'll need to take ground school and pass a written test on aeronautical knowledge. Options for ground school include taking an evening class at a community college (College of Alameda offers it), or doing it yourself with a self-study course, such as the one offered by Jeppesen. There are also some good web-based resources; go to aopa.org and avweb.com for starters. You can be taking your flying lessons at the same time you do ground school — in fact, it's recommended you do, so that the ground school will make more sense to you.

You'll need to take flying lessons and pass a flight test which includes an oral exam. You must have passed your written exam before you can take the flight test.

Once you have your license, it is good for life. You just need to fly with an instructor occasionally to keep up your skills. Of course, you can go on and get advanced licenses and ratings, all the way up to Airline Transport Pilot. It's up to you...

How long will it take?

That depends to some extent on how frequently you can fly — and how fast you learn. You must have a certain minimum number of flying hours, doing various required things, such as night flying, instrument flying, and cross-country. The minimum number of hours is either 35 or 40, depending on the school you go to (with the AAC it's 40), but nearly everyone needs 60 to 70 hours to really master all the skills.

It is best to fly two or three times per week; more, you can get burned out; less, you forget what you have learned and have to backtrack. You will need to set up a schedule that works for both you and your instructor.

How much will it cost?

Flying is not cheap, but it's worth every penny!

About half of your flying will be with an instructor and half by yourself. An instructor at our club costs around $40 per hour, and you can run up about twice as many instructor hours as flying hours, because of pre- and post-flight briefings and discussion. Our rental planes — Cessna 172s — cost $95 per hour.

Our rates are "wet tach" which means they include gas and oil, and you're actually paying for engine revolutions, figured to match hours at cruise speed. Since you do a lot of low-speed stuff in training, it averages out to about 80% of clock hours. Therefore, our rates are more like $80 - $85 per clock hour. Instructors, however, do not have tachometers — they're paid on clock time!

Assuming 30 hours of dual (with an instructor) and 30 hours of solo (by yourself), plus another 30 hours of instructor time pre- and post-flight, you're looking at:

If anyone in the Bay Area says you can do it for less, they're probably leaving something out.

How do I get started?

It's as easy as a phone call or an e-mail!

Contact one of our flight instructors to arrange an introductory flight. This is an actual lesson that counts toward your license and you will be flying the airplane (with assistance from the instructor, of course!). This is an excellent and inexpensive way to see if flying is for you.

If you decide to continue taking lessons, you and your instructor would simply agree on when the next lesson should be and you continue from there.

What kind of "stuff" do I need?

For your introductory flight, you need to just bring yourself... we'll lend you everything you need for your first flight. Beyond that, you will need a variety of equipment that your instructor can help you choose. Generally, the essentials are a headset, a kneeboard, a sectional and terminal area chart for San Francisco, a couple of pencils or pens, a pad of paper, a map plotter, and a flight computer. Most also choose to buy a flight bag to put everything in.